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Can I Send a Cease and Desist Letter to a Debt Collector?

Stop

The question about sending a letter to get a debt collector to stop contacting you is always an interesting one. The decision to send such a letter is so multifaceted and involves emotion, risk, and tolerance. But, maybe most importantly, it consists in having a plan and taking action that will ultimately deal with your …

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Debt Collectors Told They Can’t Charge You to Pay

Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an advisory opinion affirming that federal law often prohibits debt collectors from charging “pay-to-pay” fees. These charges, commonly described by debt collectors as “convenience fees,” are imposed on consumers who want to make a payment in a particular way, such as online or by phone. “Federal law …

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How to Hide From the Debt Collector

Writing this article is a bit of a double-edged sword. You see while I think that open communication is always the best way to deal with a debt situation, sometimes people just need to find a way to escape from the pressure just to recover their sanity. If you are having a difficult problem handling …

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Shouldn’t These Old Student Loans Fall Off Our Credit Report?

Question: Dear Steve, My husband has an $18,000 collection on his credit report resulting from a defaulted private student loan opened in 2009 while attending The Art Institute of Las Vegas. The statute of limitation in Nevada is 7 years, and it’s our understanding that this collection account may fall from his credit report after …

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Trump Skewers West Virginia Consumers by Changing Law

Senator Trump (R), who is also the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, proposed Senate Bill 563 which was recently enacted by the legislature in West Virginia and signed into law on April 21, 2017. The new law strips West Virginia consumers of protections and appears to be a naked attempt to skewer the citizens of …

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Debt Collectors Still Pissing People Off

Imposter scam complaints surpassed identity theft for the first time as the second most common category of consumer complaints received by the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network in 2016, according to the agency’s new Data Book. Although debt collection complaints declined slightly between 2015 and 2016, they remained the top consumer complaint category, comprising …

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